Delvers LLC 5, ch 9

Hey everyone!  I'm super excited to share this.

This chapter took a while.  I'm very proud of it and it's loooong.  Sometimes it just happens this way.

To put this into perspective, Secret of the Old Ones was 50k words.  This chapter is 7,200 words, which is approaching 20% of the entire book of SOO.  During the editing process, I actually pared it down by over 1,000 words.

This is the end of this small plot arc.  Next chapter we'll be back with Henry and Jason.

-BC

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Tanushree watched Aodh sit down to talk to his grandmother at the rear of the ship and smiled.  It was amazing that someone who had been given so much power could still be so humble.  It was one of the many reasons she’d fallen so deeply in love with him.

She’d discovered that the focused, deadly, dynamic young man she thought she’d first met had a compassionate heart and a calm nature.  He carried death, but held loosely, like an old friend.

Aodh still only had a rudimentary understanding of politics, though.  Luckily, Tanushree and Agent Gonzolez had been fairly successful so far stamping out sedition.  She was glad that so far, Aodh’s family had been exactly as she’d imagined them.

Tanushree’s relationship with her own Family was even more strained than before, but they seemed to have a grudging respect for her, now.  The Bobrik Family understood power, and alliances.  While Tanushree hadn’t planned it, she was now friends and acquaintances with some of the people who would likely have a huge impact on Ludus in the near future.

The rumors and reports of the Fideli war were worrisome, but likely not a real problem, at least not for a long, long time.  What was always most pressing for Berber were the alien portals at the foot of the mountains near Fort Mercury and Fort Salt.  Recent reports in the last few weeks mentioned that they had been showing more activity lately.

Thank the creator that Henry, Jason, and Nora had dealt with the wax worm creature they’d come across.  Berber forces were still patrolling the area to ensure the problem was truly dealt with, but a full scale battle would have stretched the country to the breaking point.

Most of Berber’s military resources were tied into suppressing the attackers that came out of the portals by the mountains.  Tanushree knew she should probably send more troops to strengthen the forts, and especially the FOB nearest the actual portals, but she just couldn’t justify it right now.  The capitol needed to keep troops in reserve.  The Berber nobles would always be a threat.

And while the palace had some very impressive defenses, the murder of Aodh’s great-grandmother had proven it was not infallible.

Tanushree shook her head.  Finding out Aodh’s lineage had been a surprise.  Meeting Thato Jacobs had been an even greater shock.  She was still sitting with Thato and his companion, Nicole.  The three of them had been exchanging small talk after Aodh had left, but now was the time to ask the serious questions, now that the king was out of ear shot.

The wind screens built into the Firebolt allowed it to travel great speeds while muting most of the howling air.  Tanushree appreciated the design as she lowered her voice.  “So what now, Thato?  You revealed yourself.  King Aodh is satisfied with your explanation, but I know there’s more to it.”

Thato gave her a stony expression.  “I’ve already been through this with the king--”

Tanushree shook her head.  “Yes, you talked to him, but you haven’t spoken to me yet, at least not alone.”  Thato began to retort, and it looked like he might say something stupid that everyone would regret, so Tanushree cut him off.  “Mister Thato, let’s level, shall we?  I know you are very powerful, and used to getting respect before you buried your name for some reason you won’t tell us.  Let me be very clear--none of that matters to me.  I am not that powerful of an orb-Bonded, never will be on my own.  However, every new war machine that is created in Berber is modified with my power in mind.  It is safe to say that this entire ship could be an extension of my will.  So if you were to act violently, I could take you down with me.”  She smiled but kept her eyes flat.  “One day I will be the queen of Berber, and I will do anything to protect my people.  We can have a friendly relationship based on trust, but you need to meet me halfway.  And as a noble of Berber, I am already extending quite a bit of consideration.”

Thato shut his mouth, blinked, and studied her.  Nicole seemed surprised at first too, but began to say, “Who does--!”

“Nicky, no,” murmured Thato.  Nicole stopped talking.

That’s interesting, thought Tanushree.  She trusts him completely and listens even while upset.  She decided it was probably an influence of their fight together at the portal to Brecken.

“So you understand what I’m trying to say?” asked Tanushree.

“Yes,” said Thato.  “I’ve been around, Lady Bobrik.  This isn’t my first time meeting with nobles.  It is one of the handful of times meeting with a noble I didn’t think was bluffing, though.  I know of your Family, too.”

“Oh goodie,” said Tanushree with an obviously false smile.

Thato laughed.  “Yeah, you can probably guess what my impression was.”

“Considering that one or more of them has been trying to kill me for over a month now, yes.”

Nicole looked back and forth between them.  “So can I punch her now?”

Thato shook his head.  “Don’t.  I would probably not be able to help you if you tried.  She’d likely kill you.  Or worse would happen down the road.”

“You wouldn’t help me?”  Nicole lowered her eyebrows dangerously.

“Nicky, this is a battlefield you’ve never seen, and players that are different than you’ve ever encountered.”  Thato absently scratched the back of his head while he continued studying Tanushree.  “It’s just surprising that someone could have this sort of ruthless aura at such a young age.”

“You know, I’m pretty tough these days, too,” said Nicole.  “And I may not be ruthless, but you are, ‘Tom.’”  Then her expression turned shocked when Tanushree snorted a laugh.  “What?”

Tanushree turned to Thato and said, “She is definitely from Earth, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”  Thato’s expression was pained.  “I came to Ludus at a really young age, as a little boy, so I adapted fast.  But I can still understand.  People from earth just don’t always get it.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Nicole.

Tanushree smiled.  “Some of my best friends now are ‘Terrans,’ humans from earth.  Let me try to explain this to you, Nicole.  Magic and Dolos orbs are definitely a way that people have power on this world.  But nobles not only only have most of the wealth on Ludus, we also have most of the other forms of power.”

Nicole raised an eyebrow, and Tanushree said, “I am not bragging.  Trust me, being born a Bobrik has been the single greatest problem of my life.  But think--orb-Bonded people live a very, very long time, yes?  I was never given much, relatively speaking, but other noble-born children are different.  Imagine if you came from a Family that had all the resources to take you to the highest ‘Bonded level possible, and also effectively train you how to use your power, all while protecting you from the outside world.

“Most people who come to Ludus, or might have even been born here are in danger after becoming orb-Bonded.  Whether they work as guards, or adventurers, or are even just well-known in a community before something like Dolos’ sick bounty started, they could still be killed. Meanwhile, nobles spend their lives amassing money and power.  This means most of the highest rank orb-Bonded in the world are nobles.”

“Nobody really knows who the top ten most powerful orb-Bonded on Ludus are,” added Thato.  “Queen Smrithi might be one, but the strongest usually don’t chase fame.  A lot of people think I was the strongest adventurer, but that isn’t necessarily true.  I just understood how to use marketing to make more money.”

Tanushree nodded.  “So the propriety and respect that nobles and connected Families get is not merely based on rank or station, it’s also an understanding that I might...hmm.  Let’s imagine that I have two great grandmothers stationed at Fort Mercury who are fifth and sixth rank ‘Bonded.  And if I were murdered, even if they hated me, they’d avenge my death.  A noble family is not just the people living in the house, or using the Family name in the capital.  They are also Family scattered around the world.  And forensics on Ludus can be much better than on Earth for those with money and connections.”

“Oh,” said Nicole.

Tanushree smiled without humor.  “So you can understand the difficult position I am in now being a Bobrik who is more at less at war with my Family.”

“Oh,” repeated Nicole.

Thato said, “She’s telling the truth.  Even if you manage to kill a noble, their family really will hunt you down most times.  And if they don’t the other nobles will.  They won’t stop at you, either.  Your family and friends would be in danger, too. So unless you are a noble yourself or have nobles back you, you don’t fuck with nobles on Ludus.”

“I got it, I got it!”  Nicole glowered.  “You could have warned me!”

Tanushree raised an eyebrow.  Nicole and Thato didn’t seem very close in age, but that didn’t matter, especially among orb-Bonded.  It was a little coarse to ask this question, but her curiosity was killing her.  “Are you two married?”

“No!” shouted Nicole.  She scooted away from Thato like he was on fire.

“She wishes,” he said with a chuckle.

Tanushree cocked her head in confusion, and Thato shrugged.  “She’s from Earth and still hasn’t really adapted to how things work here.”

“If you wanted to date me, you shouldn’t have fucked my friend!” snarled Nicole.  “I don’t give a shit how things work on Ludus, that mess does not fly with me!”

“You spent too long playing stupid games,” said Thato with a shrug.  “Pasha was practically throwing herself at me every day.  If you want to play games, take that shit back to Earth.  The last woman I would ever jump through hoops for is dead.”

Nicole’s eyes flashed, and she gestured to Tanushree.  “Lady Tanushree, you are going to be the queen of Berber!  I know how Ludus is, and Thato always brings it up, but I bet you don’t have to share the king!”

Tanushree smiled without humor.  “He is also betrothed to Nora Hazard and Rekkla, a goblin.  I will admit that I am not particularly thrilled about having a goblin for a sister wife.  Luckily Rekkla has grown on me.  But I was the one who formally introduced Nora Hazard to the king and suggested their betrothal.”

Nicole’s mouth dropped open and her eyes glazed like she’d been hit by a shovel.  Meanwhile, Thato didn’t try to hide his amusement.  He chuckled.  “This world is not your old world or old country, Nikki.”

The woman’s focus came back and she grimaced.  “Yes, it’s dangerous, and stupid, and the fashion is awful, and the local men are lazy, and the other men from Earth are assholes, and there are real monsters, and apparently, asking for a man in a one on one relationship is ‘selfish.’”

Tanushree blinked.  She turned to Thato.  “She is still saying things like this?  How long has she been here?”

“Years.”

Tanushree intellectually knew that the culture on Ludus was vastly different from most on earth.  It had been part of her education to understand most major Terran cultures, with the most up to date information that her tutors had access to.  But even after all that, she couldn’t wrap her head around what Nicole was saying.

The majority of people transported to Ludus from other worlds were male.  A handful of human women from earth have achieved great things and formed monogamous relationships.  It was not unheard of, but Nicole very obviously being in love with Thato Jacobs made such a thing improbable at best.

She was still trying to formulate what to say in response when the goblins at the front of the craft began chittering like mad.  One of them, a female named Friska ran back to Tanushree and bowed.  “Great Lady Queen…”  Her voice trailed off.  “Maybe best if you come look where we are going.”

Tanushree glanced back to see Aodh already approaching the the front of the ship so she followed.  When Aodh froze stiff as a board and almost stumbled, she sped up, curious.  She was taller than her fiance, so when she pulled up closer to Aodh, she could likely even see more of the hellish scene than he could.

The Firebolt had been far closer to the ocean than she’d expected, and Fort Mercury was under attack.  If it hadn’t been for the fort itself, there was no way she would have been able to accurately gauge the size of the huge, terrible monster that was attacking it.  It was the largest creature she’d ever seen, ever.  By far.

“What is that?” she breathed.

“True-demon,” spat Aodh as he walked up.  “Little ones around it, too.  It has a few similarities to the thing I rode in Brecken.”

Tanushree squinted.  Even being orb-Bonded, she had trouble seeing the little figures scurrying around the base of the tower as it was demolished by the giant tentacled horror.  Aodh’s eyesight must have really been exceptional.  “People are dying,” she said.

“Heggalwe, take us toward that thing as fast as you can,” Aodh ordered the head pilot.  “Prepare the weapons.”

Tanushree hadn’t been expecting a fight, much less anything like this.  She was feeling grateful to have taken the Firebolt with her V-Death MK 7 already on board.  Something made her turn back, so she saw Aodh’s grandmother nod mysteriously as the king gave orders.

***

Teresa was so tired she almost felt like she was sleep walking, but she wouldn’t allow herself to give up.  If she fell, she died...or worse.  What’s more, despite all of her new team mates other than Doctor Micahla being strangers, they’d survived for long enough together that they’d forever be her comrades.

And pride was one of the very few things she had left.

Their group was about a dozen strong.  Fifteen minutes ago they’d had twice that number.  Teresa could hear fighting in the distance, so she had to believe that other groups were holding out as well.  The demons just kept coming, though.  Meanwhile, the giant, tentacles monstrosity continued to batter the fort, destroying walls and other structures that the defenders would have been able to use to their advantage.

The only advantage the defenders seemed to have was that the lay of the land made it difficult for the huge true-demon to make its way around to the back of the fort.  That was likely the only reason any of them were still alive.

Doctor Micahla grunted as she shouldered back yet another true-demon.  The creature tried to tear at her with its claws, but instead of great gouges, it only left thin lines of red through the doctor’s coat.  Teresa flexed her magic and it spasmed, writhing from overuse.  She gestured down at one of her last little puddles.  A spear of ice formed in her hand much more slowly than usual before she threw with more frustration than strength.  Luckily, the nightmarish true-demon had already been reeling back, presenting an easy target.  Her projectile slammed home high in its chest and it fell to one side in convulsions.

“Are you alright, Doctor?” she yelled.

“Yes, yes, my skin is still mostly holding out.”  The doctor could use her Body school magic to harden her skin into very impressive armor.  Unfortunately, despite the small shield and bronze dagger knife she held, she wasn’t much of a fighter.

“Doctor, we have more wounded!” shouted a red-haired soldier.  She was among those guarding the rear of their position.

“I’ll get back there when I can,” snarled Micahla.  “It’s only me and Teresa guarding this side by ourselves!”

Teresa rolled her neck  Her eyes swam with exhaustion.  She picked up the damaged spear that she’d dropped earlier and braced herself for another, inevitable attack.  Her magic might give up at any time now, and she would likely need the mundane weapon.

She’d run into this group of defenders and had fought a running battle with them until hunkering down in the remains of what might have once been a series of sheds.  Now they were impromptu fortifications.

Creatures hissed behind some distant walls, protected from the archers in the group.  The situation was looking grim.

“What’s that!?” called Walf, a male soldier in the surviving group.

Teresa looked back, and saw the man’s arm pointing up.  She frowned as she craned her head.  Hala… she thought.  “That’s a parachute,” she muttered out loud.  “Is that possible?”

“Should I shoot it?” asked Veene, an archer.

Doctor Micahla looked a tired question at Teresa, and it took a second to snap out of her stupor.  “No, no, try to signal it!  Monsters don’t use parachutes!”

A few people in the group waved weapons at the falling parachute.  The figure descending looked strange, like a huge, blocky person.  The perspective might have been off, but it looked really...big.

As she was glancing up, Teresa saw another chunk of a distant battlement crash down as the giant true-demon continued to batter the fort.  Movement  behind the gargantuan thing caught her eye. She watched as a lance of fire streaked down from a distant, moving speck.

To one side, Micahla breathed, “What is that?”

The giant true-demon screamed, whether from pain or irritation Teresa wasn’t sure.  It sent one giant tentacle flipping toward the object in the sky.

“Did we get reinforcements?” asked Celisse, a Berber sergeant.

“I don’t know,” said Teresa honestly.  “But that thing in the sky looks like… an airplane.”  It shouldn’t be possible, but the parachute coming down had to have come from somewhere, after all.  She continued to watch as a tiny hail of objects flew from the vehicle in the sky, striking the giant true-demon in the tentacle it had just dodged.  The beast roar-screamed again, making the rubble in the area tremble.

Suddenly, a group of smaller true-demons burst from behind a distant wall, heading directly for Teresa’s little protective walls.  She grimly braced herself, butt end of her spear low.  The weapon was already warped, shaft cracked.  It might not even survive this charge.

The first demon reached them, one of the standard types she’d been battling, with pincers for hands.  It leapt forward and Teresa managed to stick the thing in the mouth through the back of its head with her spear, but not before it almost got her hand with one pincer.  The attack severed Teresa’s spear haft instead.

Two arrows buzzed past her, uncomfortably close.  They both took another true-demon in the chest.  Teresa didn’t have the energy to feel any concern about how close they’d been.  She just waved rearward to the group’s archers in gratitude.  Then after pinning the thing’s claws with her feet, she bent down to retrieve what was left of her spear.  Now it was more of a bent short sword with a too-long handle.

Doctor Micahla finished killing the true-demon she’d been fighting.  The thing had grabbed onto one of her arms with both claws.  It had continued trying to cut the woman’s ultra-hard arm off even as the doctor had slammed a dagger into the unprotected portions of its body over and over again.

“Do you have much power left?” asked Teresa.

“Can’t say that I do,” answered the dark-skinned doctor.

“Me either.”

The last two demons in this group went down, one hit by two more arrows, one taken in the head with an air rifle.  “How many more shots does Histarwee have with that air rifle?” called Micahla.

“About two, I think,” came the reply.

“Rotting damnation,” swore the doctor.

The sky overhead grew darker, a cloud bank covering the sun.  It was an ominous sign.  “Incoming!” yelled Sergeant Celisse.

Teresa turned around and her heart dropped.  At least a dozen true-demons were approaching the other side of the destroyed sheds the defenders had been using for cover.  This group was moving slowly, cautiously, staying low to the ground and making themselves harder targets for the archers.  They looked more reptilian than the pincer-demons, and they could move faster when they chose.  Their long, sharp claws had been responsible for most of the group’s deaths.

A few arrows shot out, but none of them hit anything.  The archers were trying to conserve what they had left, too.  That was going to be a hand to hand fight.  Teresa briefly considered leaving the protection of the walls to try retrieving some of the arrows on her side of the group’s makeshift fortifications, but decided against it.  She could be surrounded in an instant out there, and she still had a couple magic attacks left in her...maybe.

She was likely going to die in the next few minutes.

Teresa had made peace with her death before the group of unnatural creatures reached her fellow defenders.  But before they hit, it sounded like a dozen air rifles fired.  Three monsters were cut down.  Then a giant robot crashed out of nowhere and crushed one to a pulp.

“Thirsting rot!” yelled one of the soldiers.  An arrow flew out and bounced harmlessly off the side of the massive figure, even as it crushed the life out of another true-demon.

The figure turned just long enough for Teresa to see the hints of a woman through armored glass in the thing’s head and chest. A voice drifted to them saying, “Don’t attack me.  I’m trying to save you, fools.”  The blocky thing went back to messily destroying true-demons.

Not a robot, a suit of armor, I think, thought Teresa.  She was stunned.  After all her time on Ludus, shed never seen anything quite like this.  The closest had been some of the odd weapons of war that had destroyed her home back on the other continent.  It took her a moment, but she finally saw some crumpled, discarded fabric in the distance, remembered the parachute, and put two and two together.  This was what had come from the sky.

She did a double take as she saw a young Fideli man standing behind the exo-armored woman.  He carried a spear.  His clothing was muted, but very expensive, and he wore a wide brimmed hat.  He was wearing armor, but it didn’t look like something fit for a battlefield--it was too delicate looking.

Teresa felt a moment of indecision.  Part of her demanded that she yell a warning to this young man, but part of her wondered if another dead Fideli was such a bad thing.  The decision was taken out of her hands, and off her conscience, when the youth whirled, whipping his spear in an arc that neatly lopped off a demon’s head.

He pivoted, thrusting his spear, and the movement deftly took him out of the path of another demon’s claws.

“Are you okay back there, Aodh,” asked the woman in the exo-suit.  One of her arms dropped, and a large, nasty-looking blade flicked out, locking into place.  Then another blade joined it, and Teresa’s eyes widened as she realized the two blades created a giant pair of scissors.

“I’m fine,” called the Fideli man.  “My power doesn’t even seem to be activating.  Where is Thato?”

“He was right behind us when we were coming down.  You should have seen him better than I could, you were in my arms.”

“You’re right, I should have.”  The Fideli man made a face.  “But you’d be surprised how little you can see when you’re surrounded by the V-death.”

“I could see just fine.”

“It’s your armor, made for you to have good vision.  Of course you could.  But I was being hugged by a tank.”

The woman turned as another hissing demon came close.  Most of the demons were not small--they were thin, almost emaciated, but still around six feet tall.  However, the woman’s exo-suit stood at least nine feet and was massive.  The demon’s attacks didn’t even scratch the armor, and the woman grabbed the creature by one arm with a vice-like grip, lifted it, and cut its head off with the built-in scissor weapon on her other arm.  The casual display of lethality made Teresa blink.  The armored woman said, “This new weapon that Henry built into the Mark 6 really works well.  Saves energy.”

“I’m glad you like it, “ said the Fideli man dryly.

What has his name again? wondered Teresa.  Was it, “Ay?”

Suddenly, another two people approached, a middle aged black human man, and a dark-skinned woman who looked like she was in her twenties.  Both were dressed and armored like adventurers.  They didn’t seem too concerned about the true-demons stalking them from all sides.  Well, the man didn’t.  The woman was trying to look everywhere at once.  The man asked, “So you don’t want us to use your title while we’re down here, right Aodh?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Just making sure.”

“Where did you two go?” asked the woman in the bulky armor.

“Tom here decided that we were going to put down next to another group of demons first,” groused the woman.  “He didn’t listen to me at all on the way down.  I didn’t even know he had a way to jump down here when he volunteered to go.”

The man shrugged.  He said, “Good thing I did, right?”

“How many have you killed so far?” asked Aodh.

“I wasn’t keeping count.  Maybe a dozen.  Nicole killed a few, too.”

“Good,” said Aodh.  “I bet you weren’t expecting something like this when we ran into each other today, huh?”

“I’ve learned to roll with the punches.”

“If you roll with the punches well enough, I might offer you a job after this.”

“If it comes to that, I might even take you up on your offer.”

Aodh nodded.  “We’ll talk then.  We aren’t clear.  There are a few more over there,” he pointed at a wall, and almost on cue, the rest of the demons that had been attacking earlier came out of hiding where they’d been watching.

The young woman, Nicole, lifted her hands with a finger extended like a gun.  Bars of blue energy shot from her fingertip, impaling two of the monsters multiple times.  They crashed down onto their faces, motionless.

Two more of them still ran forward, but not for long.  Thato sprang forward, his hands moving to the weapons on his belt, and he was a blur of motion as he somehow glided past them.  Blood and gore practically erupted as he slid by, and the demons all collapsed into pieces before he’d even turned.

“I hate how he always looks so cool doing that,” muttered Nicole.  “Glad Pasha isn’t here.  She’d be drooling all over herself.”

The surviving soldiers from the fort all had expressions of shock upon witnessing the casual displays of power.  Teresa closed her mouth after realizing that she was no exception.

“Tanushree,” said the Fideli man.  “We need to move soon.  The goblins can’t keep that thing distracted forever, even with Vitaliya helping make it angry.”

“I agree, at least not before it eventually gets a hold of them.  The goblins are good, but they don’t have you on board anymore,” said the woman in armor.  She stomped closer to the surviving defenders, waved at them, and turned back.  “Aodh, think there any more true-demons nearby?”

“I don’t think so, at least not for the moment,” said the Fideli man.  “I’m using my power and it’s not hurting me as much as when they’re around.”

Now that the newcomers were closer,  Teresa studied them.  Tanushree’s armor was incredibly impressive.  It almost looked made of concrete.  There were various boxes and obvious weapons built into the exterior.  The woman inside was completely protected.  Teresa was reminded of TV shows with robots or other science fiction elements from when she’d seen on earth.

The Fideli man’s armor made much more sense up close.  It was incredibly well made, custom armor.  He had to be either very rich or very fortunate.  His spear caught her eye, too. It had a long, black blade, almost the size of a sword.

Teresa was fairly sure that Nicole was from earth.  Not only did she have a non-local accent, the way she held herself reminded Teresa of earth, and it looked like the woman was also wearing lip gloss.  She was dressed in light armor, with a high quality air pistol on her hip.

In some ways, Thato was the most interesting member of the group.  He didn’t grab the attention at first quite like a giant, walking suit of armor did, but his loadout didn’t make sense.  The man seemed to be covered in enchanted objects, from little gadgets to weapons.  He wore armor that let him move easily, and just standing there, he gave off the impression of motion.  Teresa was impressed.  The way he’d picked apart the true-demons had obviously not been a fluke.

In fact, the way this group had easily destroyed the entire wave of attacking true-demons helped explain why they seemed incredibly stress-free for having landed in the middle of a battle.  Teresa was relieved, but also a little apprehensive.  She’d seen warriors as powerful as these people before, but they were usually nobles, or front line soldiers.  Either possibility would be strange in this situation.

Doctor Micahla bowed at the newcomers.  “Thank you for helping us.  May I ask who you are?”

Sergeant Celisse butted in, motioning at the newcomers, “You all should get in here before the next wave comes!”

“And definitely before that huge monster flings more debris over here,” said one of the soldiers grimly.  She had a blood bandage on one side of her head.  Teresa remembered she’d actually gotten that wound when a hail of broken stones had been launched by one of the giant true-demon’s attacks on the fort.

“Actually,” said the young Fideli man, “I think you all should come with me.”

“Why?” asked the sergeant.

“You’ll be safer.”

A few of the survivors chuckled, but Teresa knew it wasn’t a joke.  “Okay.  But where are you going and why are you here?”

Doctor Micahla turned in surprise.  “Teresa, why?  It’s suicide out there!”

“I don’t think so.”  Teresa shook her head.  “Besides, I’m almost completely out of power, and without it, I’m just a small woman with a pointy stick.”

The Fideli man gave her a lopsided grin.  Behind him, the human man, Thato, kept watch without being asked to.  Aodh said, “We came here to save the fort.  Not originally, but that’s what we’re doing now.”

“And killing every fucking true-demon we see,” added Nicole.

“That too,” said Aodh.  He turned to Tanushree and said, “I think I like her.”

“She definitely has at least some of her priorities straight,” said Tanushree. Teresa got a better glimpse of the woman inside the armor and saw blonde hair.

Aodh said, “I still think I should have just jumped down from the Firebolt.”

“That would have been a terrible idea, and you know it,” said Tanushree.  “You can boss your guards around, but not me.  It’s only luck that you survived that fall with the rock wyrm.”

“Luck, eh?”  Aodh smiled, showing his pointed eye teeth.

“There’s luck, and then there’s a gigantic true-demon with massively thick skin.  If you couldn’t penetrate the thing’s hide with your weapons, you would be done.”

“Yeah, but that’s why you’re here, right?  Burn away enough skin so I can use my dagger.  I still think it would have worked just fine from the air with Vitaliya doing the burning but I’ll admit this does make sense.”  He shook his head.  “I wish Henry could see this.”

“Me too, because maybe he could kill this thing without getting as close as we have to.  Jason or Nora would be even better.”

“Oh, that’s right!  We should probably send an MMB to Henry and Jason about all of this.”

“I already put it on my to-do list, Love,” said Tanushree.  She tapped the head of her huge exosuit with her scissor-like bladed weapon.

“Wait,” said Nicole.  “What about these defenders?  Don’t these people seem remarkably un-curious about the group of four heavily armed people that just turned up out of nowhere?”

“Demons were about to eat them,” said Tanushree.  “They probably aren’t too picky about the help right now.”

“Are we going to move, or is everyone going to talk all day?” asked Thato.

“I was wondering the same thing before, but I didn’t want to say anything with K--, uh, Aodh here,” admitted Nicole.

“Yes, if we take too long, my family is going to worry,” said Aodh.

“And your guard,” said Tanushree.  “Poor Henrietta. I don’t disagree with your decision to have her guard your family, but you know you’ll never get away with only one guard ever again after this.”

“I know,” sighed Aodh.  “Okay, let’s go.”  He turned to meet Sergeant Celisse.  “Anyone who wants to go with us can follow.”

One of the soldiers muttered, “I’m not going anywhere with some Fideli.”

Tanushree stomped forward, but Aodh said, “Stop.”  He addressed the soldiers again.  “Again, you can follow if you want, but we are leaving.”

After a tense few seconds, the sergeant grated, “We are all going to die anyway.  If you lot want to go with the strangers, I won’t make you stay.  I’m not leaving, though.”

By that time, Aodh and his group had already left.  He was heading directly for the ruined fort and the rampaging giant on the other side.  Teresa hurried to follow, and felt relieved that Doctor Micahla did too.  Five soldiers came with them.  The only one she knew by name was Veene the archer.

The makeshift group moved closer to the fort but a sudden, violent crash made them all hunker down.  Another part of the fort was practically smashed flat, and the huge, tentacled creature began to actually move over the rubble.  Giant chunks of stone rained down from the sky, and a fresh wave of parasitic, man-sized true-demons crawled out of the fresh destruction or detached themselves from the giant monster.  One of its huge eyes swiveled downwards and it actually spotted them.  Nicole knew what was going to happen next.

“Run!” she shouted.

Veene screamed, “This way!”  She took off at a sprint, and everyone followed, even the newcomers.  A shadow fell over them as the monstrous creature raised a tentacle to smash them flat.

“In here!” screamed Veene.  She pointed to what looked like a large, open cellar door.  Everyone scampered in side, even Tanushree was able to drop inside in her massive armor.  The last soldier had barely made int inside before the ground rocked and everything outside was pulverized.

“You people are going to kill that thing?” asked one of the soldiers.  She was shaking.

“That’s the plan,” said Tanushree.  “So what now?  The target is right outside.  Smaller demons will get here soon, too.

Veene pointed deeper into the room and Teresa noticed a tunnel for the first time.  “There is a passage here that goes underneath the entire fort to a larger storage area on the other side.  If you come out on that end, maybe you could ambush it.”

“Why didn’t we go down here before?” asked Teresa.

“The tunnels are probably crawling with demons.  We would have all been rotted, but these people might have a chance.

Aodh gave Tanushree a look and said, “It’s lucky this was here, wasn’t it?  Lucky, huh?”

The woman in the armor just sighed in response.

“So what now?” asked Thato.  “Take the tunnel?”

“I can’t fit down there, not with V-Death, “ said Tanushree.

Nicole shrugged.  “You could just get out of it then and walk like the rest of us.”

“No,” said Aodh, shaking his head.  “She’s safer in that thing and I need her help.  Tanushree, will you be alright if you leave?  Can you get to the other side of the fort by yourself?”

“I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

“What!?”  One of the soldiers goggled.  “That’s suicide!”

The head of Tanushree’s combat suit rotated back and forth, shaking its head.  “No, the little ones can’t penetrate V-death.  Only the huge thing is a threat, and I can move fast by myself.”

“She’s right,” said Thato.  "There are no mid-sized demons here.  They’re only the small ones that rode in on the giant."

“Okay Tanushree, you can leave when you’re ready,” said Aodh.

“Then there is no time like the present.  I love you,”she said.

“I love you, too.  Don’t die.”

Tanushree laughed.  “I wouldn’t give my family the satisfaction.”  Then her powerful armor flexed its legs and jumped out of the cellar in a flash.  A short time later, the crashing impact of an enormous tentacle hitting the ground rocked the room.

Thato and Aodh shared a look before the latter pulled a handheld magic lamp out of a pouch.  He chuckled.  “Jason gave me this.”  Then he waved at everyone in the room.  “If you have lights, get them out.  Let’s go.  I don’t want to be late for meeting Tanushree when she gets to the other side.”

“Ever since I met Thato, my life has gone to hell.  Is this an everyday sort of thing for you people?” asked Nicole.

“Just unlucky, I guess,” said Aodh.  A bit louder he said, “Thato leads, Nicole behind him.  She has ranged abilities.  I want all the soldiers watching our rear.  I will be in the middle with the doctor.”

“How did you know I was a doctor?” asked Micahla.

“Everyone keeps calling you Doctor.”

“Oh.”

Up ahead, a demon jumped out of a crevice, but it was dead in seconds.  Nicole’s energy attacks had punched it right through the forehead.  “I hate this,” said the adventurer.  “Why does it always have to be dark?  Why can’t this sort of thing ever happen on a sunny day, out in the open, and stay that way?”

“If it were easy, we wouldn’t be paid so much,” said Thato.

“We haven’t been paid at all! Not since Action,” replied Nicole indignantly.  Thato just laughed.

Teresa moved forward, placing herself next to Doctor Micahla.  She was not a Body mage, but still had a tiny bit of magic power left, and as a Water mage, she could still manage light healing.  Her role from here out would be support.  She dared to hope she might survive the day, but she felt a wave of failure wash over her.  “I was never able to send my warning,” she muttered.

“What do you mean?” asked Aodh.  Up ahead, Nicole pointed a finger and demons died.  Thato didn’t even need to do much, it seemed.  He only moved to hold up a shield and block any spines or venom flung by the demons they encountered.  None of the mysterious newcomers appeared too phased by their current situation, even Nicole.  It seemed complaining was just her coping mechanism, because she never faltered as she delivered deadly energy blasts and protected the group.

Michahla shook her head and said, “I’m sorry, Teresa.  We should have listened to you.  This, all of this was what you wanted to warn the king about, right?”

Teresa nodded.  She felt moisture gathering at the corners of her eyes and angrily dashed it away with the heel of a dirty palm.

“The king?  You mean the king of Berber?” asked Aodh.

“Yes.”  Teresa nodded.  “I was a slave, a prisoner of war.  My..leader told me to deliver a message, so I barely escaped.  The people at this fort here were keeping me prisoner while I recovered, and I’d been trying to convince them to let me send a message to the Berber capital.  The king would have been best, but anyone, I just wanted…” she trailed off and crossed her arms.  The darkness of the tunnel suited her mood perfectly.  She’d been in fear of her life for so long, part of her felt numb to the terrible danger she was in now.

“So if you had the king of Berber right in front of you, what would you say?” asked Aodh.

Teresa made a face.  “I would tell him that the Berkashians have taken over the other continent, that they have partnered with evil gods, they use true-demons and orb-bonded or mage slaves as shock troops.  The Berkashians have been developing new technologies and have weapons of war that Ludus has never seen.  And they can cross the ocean without danger because they have giant true-demons with them like the one attacking this fort.”  Her breath left her in a rush after the avalanche of words had poured out of her mouth.

Some of the Berber soldiers goggled at her.  Doctor Micahla just nodded in a knowing fashion.  She’d heard all of this before.

“Well, today is your lucky day,” said Aodh.  “My full name is Aodh Antonni O’breen.  I am the king of Berber.”

One of the soldiers began to scoff, but Doctor Micahlah put her hand on the woman’s shoulders.  Her eyes were big as saucers and she slowly shook her head.  “Forgive us for not recognizing you, Your Majesty,” she stammered.  She bowed low and trembled.

Teresa goggled.  That’s right.  The King of Berber was named “Aodh,” wasn’t he?  She hadn’t known how to pronounce it until now, though.

Aodh nodded gravely.  “Thank you for the warning.  What was your name again?”

“Teresa, uh, Your Majesty.”

The king said, “I’ll admit that I didn’t think much of the reports about the invasion to the north before.  I promise you that I’m taking it very seriously now.”

At the front of the group, Nicole riddled another demon full of frozen holes and shook her head.  She said to Thato, ”He should have just said who he was to begin with.  Then all the soldiers would have come with us.”

“No,” disagreed Thato.  “There aren’t very many of us here.  Announcing who he was might put us in danger.”

“Wait till they find out about you, ‘Tom,’” muttered Nicole.

“So Aodh is really the king?” asked Teresa.

“Yes,” said Thato.  “And Lady Tanushree Bobrik is one of the princess consorts.”

“The woman who just went out there by herself?”

“That’s right.”

All around her the soldiers murmured.  Even in the dark, traversing the hellish tunnel, some of them still gave more nervous little half-bows to Aodh.  He said, “Don’t worry everyone.  Until we get out of this, I’m just Aodh.  Afterwards, we’ll discuss protocol.”

“So we’re really going to kill the huge true-demon?” asked Doctor Micahlah.

“I sure plan to,” replied Aodh.

“What about the smaller demons running all over the place?” asked Veene.

“After I deal with the giant, that problem should sort of solve itself.”  King Aodh grinned.

Up ahead, Thato elbowed Nicole.  “You missed one,” he said.  Then his hand flashed forward, and something screamed up ahead in the dark.

Teresa couldn’t help it.  She chuckled softy and said in Bisaya, “Buang na.  Yata is never going to believe this.”